Behind-the-Scenes of Blindness

Blindness is live! To say that I have been biting my nails in anticipation throughout this countdown would be a gross understatement. I have bitten them to the nub, paced walking paths in the yard and carpet, chewed a lot of Tums, talked to my dogs (I've had full-on conversations with them), and driven my husband nuts. But finally…finally! Cody is live and breathing in book form.

I got the idea for this story when I was writing Waiting on the Sidelines. I wanted to create a character with real imperfections--the kind of scars that make it hard on our bodies and our hearts. Cody lived in my head for a few months. I was finishing Going Long, but in my purse I had this small little notebook that I would fill up with little bits and pieces about Cody. What made him tick--his past, his look, his dreams, his flaws. And somewhere along the way I fell in love with this character.

When Going was done, I dove right into writing Blindness. But what surprised me was how easy it was to write the main character's voice. That's right…Cody wasn't the voice in the story. Don't get me wrong, he's the heart--and you'll learn just how much of the heart he is when you read it--but he wasn't the voice. I needed a worthy woman--one with just as many battle wounds from life, one who needed Cody's penchant for risk to give her that little nudge to get her heart beating again, to push her into living. Charlotte "Charlie" Hudson embodied all of those things, and her story poured onto the pages. There's something about her--my friends would tell you that I'm drawn to her connection to her past, her love for all things old and nostalgic. And they would probably be right, to an extent. But I think I also get her hesitation--her fear of being daring, of taking a leap. I admire leapers, and I'm working on becoming one myself.

So's Charlie.

Without giving any more away, I thought I'd also share a few behind-the-scenes facts about Blindness and my journey in writing it.

~ The National 'Trouble Will Find Me' was pretty much exclusively taking up residency on my iPod while writing this story. I dig the tone of their music, and the song "I Need My Girl" pretty much sums the feeling of this book up.

~ The title is an homage to Jack White's cover of "Love is Blindness" -- nothing against U2, it's just…well…Jack does it better. While The National was my soundtrack, Jack White's rendition is this story's anthem.

~ My husband has read all of my books, and he has loved them (he even says so when he talks to people when I'm not around; it gets back to me). He reads sci-fi and fantasy, and he willingly turned in his man card after Blindness because he enjoyed it so much.

~ I'm already four chapters in on my new project. This one is going to be very important to me, and extremely personal. I hope I can grow my nails back in time.

I hope you love these characters as much as I do, and though I say it all the time, I truly mean it--thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading and spending your time with my words. It's a gift, and I don't take it for granted.